Improving English Students’ Material Development Skills Through PBL-Based Flipbook Production: An Experimental Research

Abstract

Many English education students still rely on printed textbooks and lack sufficient skills to develop interactive digital learning materials. This limitation results in low digital literacy and minimal experience in transforming printed resources into multimodal formats. This study investigates the effect of Project-Based Learning (PBL) on students’ digital material development performance by converting printed English books into interactive flipbooks. An experimental design was employed involving 32 undergraduate English students, divided into an experimental group (n = 16) and a control group (n = 16). The experimental group developed flipbooks through a PBL-based project, while the control group worked with conventional printed materials. Data were collected through pretest–posttest assessments and analyzed statistically. The results show notable improvement in the experimental group, with mean scores rising from 67.42 to 86.37, compared to the control group’s increase from 66.81 to 74.25. An independent t-test confirmed a significant difference between groups (t = 3.52 > t-table = 2.04, p < 0.05), with a high effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.86). Students also reported increased motivation and digital literacy. In conclusion, PBL effectively enhances students’ digital material development skills and facilitates the shift from printed to interactive multimodal learning resources.